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(No Model.) G. A. LOWRY.

AUTOMATIG EEEDEE EOE TWINE MAKING MACHINES. No. 451,496. Patented May 5, 1891.

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M4 M4 W UNTTED STATES P TENT ()nrrcn.

GEORGE A. LOVVRY, OF DES MOINES, IOIVA, ASSIGNOR TO THE ALLIANCE TWINE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

AUTOMATIC FEEDER FOR TWINE-MAKING MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 451,496, dated May 5, 1891.

Application filed June 9, 1890. Serial No. 354,815. (No model.)

To to whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. Lower, a citizen of the United States, residing at Des Moines, in the county of Polk and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Automatic Feeders for Twine Making Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvementin machines for making twine, cord, rope, &c.;

and its object is to provide an automatic feeder for the fibers or strands of which such twine, rope, or cord is composed.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts hereinafter dcscribed,and then pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings like letters refer to the same parts in the several figures, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of my automatic feeder. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the same on the line a: ocof Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a side elevation in detail of the nipper.

A A designate the frame-work of the machine, which may be of any suitable construction.

13 represents a hopper for containing the strands or fibers of the material which is to be formed into a rope, due. This hopper I prefer to construct of approximately triangular shape, with a cover 13, which can be readily opened, forming one side thereof, and said hopper being mounted by suitable trunnions B in the side frames of the machine. Opposite to the center of the cover and below the same the two sides meet so as to form an apex of the triangle, and this apex may be designated as the bottom of the hopper. Near one end of the hopper an opening B is made transversely of and through the bottom or apex by removing a section therefrom, and across this opening strands of material S are designed to rest. Secured to one of the trunnions of the hopper is a pulley E or other gear, by means of which a suitable and preferably slow rotation may be given such hopper, for apurpose which will be hereinafter set forth. At a convenient distance below the hopper I mount a shaft F, which is also journaled in the side frames, and is provided with a pulley or other gear G, whereby it may be given suitable rotation. The pulleys which rotate the hopper and the shaft Fare driven at the same speed and in the same direction by any suitable arrangement of belts or gearing; but the former pulley and the hopper driven thereby are positioned at the time of starting the same, so that the bottom of such hopper will not quite have reached the jaws of a nipper, which will be hereinafter described.

A collar 1) is secured to the shaft F, and has adjustably attached to it, by a screwthread Z) or otherwise, a red I), which projects therefrom in the direction of the hopper, and has attached to its outer end a finger or jaw 0. Upon this rod 1) is a sleeve 0, which is provided with a finger d and with a frictionroller 6. The finger dis located at the farther end of the sleeve, and the friction-roller at the end of the sleeve nearest the shaft. A suitable coiled spring a surrounds the rod 1) and bears against the under side of the sleeve 0, thereby tending to force the finger of the.

latter toward the finger 0 upon the rod, and thus to keep the nipper-jaws c d thus formed normally closed.

The construction of nipper just described is the form which I have found most efficient in practice; but I have devised other forms, which are also effective in this connection, but not so advantageous as the one herein shown. It is obvious that many variations might readily be made in this nipper by any skilled person without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I have not attempted to set forth or illustrate such variations, because it would be impracticable within the limits of this specification.

Mounted upon a vertical standard II are two bars D D, provided with cam-fingers ff, respectively, upon their outer ends. The bar D is arranged in a vertical position and the bar D in a horizontal position. In lieu of these bars with cam-fingers other equivalent devices will readily suggest themselves to the skilled mechanic, and I therefore do not wish to be understood as confining myself to the exact construction shown.

The operation of my automatic feeder is as follows: The grass or other material S from which the twine, cord, &c., is to be made is placed in the hopper I with the strands preferably lying longitudinally in the same. The hopperisthen slowly rotated, the strands of the material therein being caused by gravity to settle in the angle of the hopper, and

consequently to lie across the recess or opening formed in the bottom of the same. The shaft carrying the nipper is simultaneously rotated at the same speed; but the bottom of lo thehopper and the jaws of the nipper have been positioned with reference to each other,

so that they are in substantially the same horizontal plane, but in different vertical planes, and are moving oppositely with re- 1 5 spect to each other, though the pulleys which drive them are being rotated in the same direction. Just before the nipper jaws or fingers enter the opening B in the bottom of the hopper the cam-finger on the arm D strikes the 2o friction-roller or projection on the sleeve C and causes the same to be withdrawn with its finger from its extreme outward position, thus opening the jaws and permitting them to grasp one or more strands or fibers lying across the opening in theliopper. In practice I have found that usually two strands are grasped by the jaws of the nipper, and this is what is desired. The further revolution of the shaft F carries the nipper, with the strands which it has grasped, around into a horizontal position, and then the sleeve is again retracted so as to release the strands by its friction-roller coming in contact with the This permits the strands thus released to be fed into the trough of the ma chine for twisting the same into twine, such as is illustrated in my patent, No. 436,908, dated September 23, 1890. The nipper may be adjusted to project more or less into the opening in the bottom of the hopper by the screw-thread If, hereinbefore referred to.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an automatic feeder, the combination, with a rotatable hopper having an opening therein, of a rotatable shaft arranged thereunder and provided with or carrying a nipper, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In an automatic feeder, the combination of a rotatable hopper of angular shape having an opening therein with a rotatable shaft arranged thereunder and carrying a nipper, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In an automatic feeder, the combination of a rotatable angular hopper having a recess or opening therein with a rotatable shaft located thereunder and carrying one movable and one fixed finger mounted upon a rod, which latter also carries a spring, and a pair of cams or projecting fingers for actuating the movable nipper-finger, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

GEORGE A. LOWRY. 

